Pearl Harbor survivors gather in Lexington

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Five of Kentucky's ten known remaining Pearl Harbor survivors gathered at the Oleika Shrine Temple to remember that dark day 71 years ago.

"I was going to get by bathing suit and beach towel and take off and go to the beach, but then that plane come over. I looked up and the guns were firing and he looked down at me. I can see it now. If I'd had a rock I could have thrown it and hit the plane," said Army veteran John Toy of Mount Sterling.

They got us up, lined us up, gave us 35 rounds of ammunition for our rifles. The pilots were coming over and we could see the pilots after they dropped their bombs. Things like that just stick with you," said Herman Horn, an Army veteran from Frankfort.

They said over the years, their number has dwindled from about 30 to just a handful.

"Each year it seems like there's getting less of us. There's only ten of us now that we know of in the state," said Toy.

"We're just like family. We go to every one of them. It's not to get anything, we just go because we want to see each other," said Horn.

Pearl Harbor survivors said it's important to gather and remember that day so that the story will be passed down to the next generation.

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